ABU DHABI // A border-security officer who posed as a traffic policemen as a "prank" today had his one-month jail sentence suspended by the appeals court.
MS, an Emirati, was convicted of traffic-related offences after claiming to be a traffic policeman at Marina Mall. He stopped the car of someone he knew, knocked on the window and told the driver and passenger that he was with the police and asked for their ID cards.
They pretended not to know who he was and asked him for his police ID card.
He replied that he did not have it with him, but that as he was driving the colonel's car, "nobody could touch him", according to court records.
The two men inside the car then became annoyed and decided to block his vehicle with theirs and prevent him from leaving.
When they got out of their car to talk to him, he jumped in their vehicle and drove it out of the way.
The two men then reported him for posing as a policeman to get money from them.
The border-security officer's lawyer said the allegation made no sense. He asked how his client could have blackmailed the two men when they had done nothing wrong. The border-security officer said he had pretended to be a policeman as a "prank".
hdajani@thenational.ae
Anxiety and work stress major factors
Anxiety, work stress and social isolation are all factors in the recogised rise in mental health problems.
A study UAE Ministry of Health researchers published in the summer also cited struggles with weight and illnesses as major contributors.
Its authors analysed a dozen separate UAE studies between 2007 and 2017. Prevalence was often higher in university students, women and in people on low incomes.
One showed 28 per cent of female students at a Dubai university reported symptoms linked to depression. Another in Al Ain found 22.2 per cent of students had depressive symptoms - five times the global average.
It said the country has made strides to address mental health problems but said: “Our review highlights the overall prevalence of depressive symptoms and depression, which may long have been overlooked."
Prof Samir Al Adawi, of the department of behavioural medicine at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, who was not involved in the study but is a recognised expert in the Gulf, said how mental health is discussed varies significantly between cultures and nationalities.
“The problem we have in the Gulf is the cross-cultural differences and how people articulate emotional distress," said Prof Al Adawi.
“Someone will say that I have physical complaints rather than emotional complaints. This is the major problem with any discussion around depression."
Daniel Bardsley
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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